Patent document 1 describes an example of a known vehicle door lock device. The vehicle door lock device includes a housing, a latch mechanism, an inside lever, an open lever, an operation lever, and a child protector lever. The latch mechanism holds the vehicle door in a state closing the vehicle body. The inside lever is operated by a vehicle occupant from the passenger compartment of the vehicle to open the vehicle door. The open lever allows the vehicle door to be released from the closed state produced by the latch mechanism. The operation lever is movable to an unset position, enabling the transmission of torque from the inside lever to the open lever, a set position, disabling the transmission of torque. The child protector lever is pivotally coupled to the housing. Pivoting of the child protector lever relative to the housing moves the operation lever between the unset position and the set position. The operation lever and the child protector lever form a child protector mechanism.
In patent document 1, the child protector lever is arranged at a position that is spaced from the inside lever so that the child protector lever may be pivoted about a pivot axis that differs from the pivot axis of the inside lever. This enlarges the child protector mechanism.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-328623